Fishbowl tracks your Derby stock count, but not which heat-lot the titanium in bin 14 came from
Custom inventory software for a Derby engineering business tracks what consumer inventory tools cannot: material certificates, heat-lot and serial traceability, and consignment or free-issue stock from primes. Expect $45k to $115k and 4 to 7 months. The win is stock that carries its certification and genealogy, so you can prove which heat-lot and cert a part came from, instead of a tool that counts quantities but cannot tell you the traceability that aerospace and rail customers demand.
You hold stock in Derby that is not just a quantity, it is a traceable material with a certificate and a heat-lot, and often it belongs to your customer. Fishbowl, Cin7 and spreadsheets count units beautifully, but they have no concept of the cert that came with the titanium bar, the heat-lot it belongs to, or the fact that the bin of forgings is free-issue stock owned by Rolls-Royce that you must account for separately.
So the traceability lives in PDFs and a spreadsheet alongside the inventory count, connected only when someone matches them by hand. The day a customer asks which heat-lot a delivered part came from, you are reconstructing it from goods-in records, and the day an auditor asks how you segregate free-issue stock, the answer is uncomfortable, because the consumer inventory tool never knew the difference.
The case for owning your inventory management
Custom inventory software earns its keep because in Derby engineering, stock is a traceable, certified, sometimes customer-owned material, and consumer tools model none of that. Build inventory that carries the cert and heat-lot with the stock, segregates free-issue from your own, and links receiving inspection to what it cleared, and the traceability question stops being a reconstruction job and becomes a lookup.
What your build should include
Derby inventory management: the full scope
Everything an inventory management build here can cover: inventory tracking, Fishbowl alternative, Cin7 alternative, real-time inventory, purchase order management, demand forecasting and inventory management software.
Budgeting a inventory management build in Derby
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Traceable inventory with cert and heat-lot tracking | $45k to $75k | 4 to 5 months |
| Full system with free-issue segregation and ERP sync | $75k to $115k | 6 to 7 months |
| Annual support and enhancements | $12k to $26k | ongoing |
Delivery, week by week
Exactly what you get
You get inventory where stock carries its cert and heat-lot, serial and lot genealogy survives issue and split, and customer-owned free-issue stock is segregated and accounted for cleanly. The heat-lot question that used to mean an hour of reconstruction becomes a lookup. It works hand in glove with your ERP, a warehouse management system for serialised dispatch, the traceability spine, and business intelligence dashboards for stock turn and shortage risk.
How to choose a developer in Derby
Choose a team that understands stock in your world is a certified, traceable, sometimes customer-owned material, and designs cert, heat-lot and free-issue handling from the start. Insist on genealogy that survives issue and split, free-issue segregation and a receiving-inspection link. Avoid anyone who treats inventory as a simple quantity count or has no answer for customer-owned stock.
- Stock that carries its material cert and heat-lot, so traceability is a lookup, not a reconstruction
- Serial and lot genealogy maintained as material is issued, split and consumed
- Free-issue and consignment stock segregated and accounted for separately, clearing an audit risk
- Receiving inspection results linked to the stock they cleared, so nothing uncertified enters production
- Built for Derby aerospace and rail stock realities, not a consumer warehouse count
- Cert and heat-lot tracking adds data-entry discipline at goods-in that a simple count does not need
- A custom build costs more than a Fishbowl or Cin7 subscription
- You own maintenance instead of a vendor carrying it
- If you stock standard commodity items with no traceability need, a packaged tool is cheaper and fine
- !They treat stock as quantity only; ask how cert and heat-lot travel with the material
- !No free-issue concept; ask how customer-owned stock is segregated for audit
- !No genealogy on issue and split; ask how lot traceability survives consumption
- !No receiving-inspection link; ask how uncertified material is kept out of production
- !No ERP integration; ask how stock and works orders stay in sync
Most Derby teams pricing inventory management end up comparing notes on accounting, project management, lms too; the systems share one data spine.
Rohan advises mid-market and enterprise teams on ERP, CRM and custom software, and has led delivery on dozens of business-software builds.
Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Why can Fishbowl not handle our inventory?
Fishbowl and Cin7 count quantities and manage reorders well, but they have no native concept of a material certificate, a heat-lot, or customer-owned free-issue stock. Those are exactly the things a Derby aerospace or rail supplier must track, which is why the traceability ends up in disconnected spreadsheets.
How does cert and heat-lot tracking work?
At goods-in, the cert and heat-lot are captured and bound to the received stock, then carried through every issue, split and consumption into works orders. When a customer asks which heat-lot a delivered part came from, it is a lookup against the genealogy rather than a manual reconstruction from PDFs.
Can it handle free-issue stock from a prime?
Yes, and this is a common reason Derby suppliers build custom. Free-issue and consignment stock owned by a prime is segregated and accounted for separately from your own, so an auditor sees clean separation rather than a single undifferentiated count.
Does it connect to our ERP?
Yes. The inventory system integrates with your ERP and traceability spine so stock, works orders and dispatch stay in sync. The goal is one source of truth for what stock exists, what it is certified to, and where it is in production.
What does it cost to maintain?
Budget $12k to $26k a year for support and enhancements. The ongoing discipline is accurate cert and heat-lot capture at goods-in, since the traceability is only as good as the data entered when material arrives.